Summit introduces two year delay to CAP reform package

European heads of state have made significant changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform package agreed last month (see DII 64(3)5).
Meeting at a summit in Berlin at the end of March, government officials decided to defer the main parts of dairy reform by two years. Con-sequently the proposed price cut will not be phased in until 2005 and farmers expecting compensation must endure a similar delay. Those countries looking forward to a 1.5% rise in quota in 2003 now have to wait six years rather than four for the extra allowance. Meanwhile, larger quota increases allocated to Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Northern Ireland will come into effect much sooner, with 64% implemented next year and the rest in 2001.
President of the UK’s National Farmers’ Union, Ben Gill expressed disappointment at the outcome of the summit.